Saturday, October 03, 2015

Love Halloween? Love theme park history? Boy, have I got the event for you! Join the Orange County Historical Society and authors Ted Dougherty and
Eric Lynxwiler for some Halloween fun and holiday history on Thursday, Oct.
8, 2015, 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in
Orange. This event is open to the public at no cost.

Halloween is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Yet long before
costume-shop chains and Halloween stores cropped up every October, the
Halloween season was far more innocent and simple. Many remember when the
season entailed trick-or-treating in home-made costumes among a few
illuminated porch decorations. That all changed in the 1970s when
Halloween's popularity began to explode. One of the pioneers of the
now-global Halloween industry was Orange County's own Knott's Berry Farm.
Take a trip back in time with authors and historians, Ted Dougherty and Eric
Lynxwiler as they share how the family-friendly Knott's Berry Farm theme
park was at the forefront in creating a spooky form of entertainment that
has been emulated at theme parks around the world.

Ted Dougherty is a historian and author of the award-winning book,
Knott's Halloween Haunt: A Picture History. In addition to scaring
thousands of guests for ten seasons as a "werewolf" at Knott's, Ted has also
consulted, provided historical tours and trained characters for the longest
running Halloween theme park in the world, Knott's Scary Farm's Halloween
Haunt. Due to his expertise of things that go bump in the night, Ted has
worked as an Associate Producer for the documentary, Season of Screams,
and featured in numerous media outlets, including Newsweek, the
History Channel and CNN.

Urban anthropologist J.
Eric Lynxwiler is the co-author of Knott's Preserved: From Boysenberry
to Theme Park, The History of Knott's Berry Farm, and
Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles. Neon enthusiasts
may know Eric as the affable host of the Museum of Neon Art's Neon Cruise.
Downtown L.A. preservationists know him as an L.A. Conservancy docent for
the Broadway Theater district. While attending UCLA, he spent one school
year behind the counter of Knott's shooting gallery and, more recently,
worked as theme park's graphic designer on signage, brochures, and its new
series of Berry-Market-labeled preserves.

Thanks for visiting. The views expressed in this blog are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions of any organization, agency, business or other individual. This blog is maintained in my free time.